in: Blogging
by: Joe Pawlikowski
In Part 1 we discussed the prepwork necessary before you begin blogging as well as what to do while you're writing the actual article. Now it's time to publish and promote.
4. LINK OUT TO YOUR TARGETED INFLUENCERS
We’re all familiar with the concept of reciprocation, but in digital marketing we have to think in terms of preciprocation. The word might show up with a red underline in your word processor, but even if it’s not a real word it’s an easy concept to understand.
The best way to ingratiate yourself with influencers is to share their work. Comb through their work and see if they’ve written anything that you can use in creating your post. Cite them with a simple link from within your blog post. Then, when you’re promoting the post to them, you have a ready-made hook. Tell them you loved their advice so much that you cited it in your own post.
You can take this concept of preciprocation even further. As you’re crafting your article, start sharing the target influencers’ content on social media. Show them that you care, that you know and appreciate their content. It might not seem like much, but once you add everything up – the shares, the positive comments, the links out to their work – it amounts to something much larger than the individual parts.
5. FOCUS ON YOUR BEST NETWORKS
You created an article, and you know how you’re going to promote it. Now it’s time to get started and get your fingers typing in different networks.
It might seem like a good idea at first, but you don’t want to plaster your content all over every social network. For starters, it’s a pointless practice. It might take only a minute to update a status, but the best social promotion comes on a limited number of networks because you are trying to build a community here, not spam everyone in sight with your content.
How Do You Know Your Best Networks?
Facebook works best for big brands and content-driven sites (i.e., sites that publish multiple times per day like Gawker). Twitter can be a great outlet for content promotion, but you need to put in work to get anything out of it. To get the most out of Twitter, you need to develop real relationships with people so that they want to promote your content. Simply tweeting into the ether is as effective as publishing a blog post that no one reads. LinkedIn works best for B2B content, while Pinterest can provide huge returns for original, image-driven content.
Focusing on just a few, perhaps as few as two, social networks allows you to build real communities. It takes a herculean effort, perhaps a full-time employee, to create communities on all of the big social networks. Narrow your focus and you can achieve success on the couple of platforms you choose – the ones that work best for your brand.
Do Your Social Media Homework Beforehand
If you work every day on connecting with people on Twitter and interacting in a non-self-serving way, you can reap the benefits of the platform. Use it to only tweet out your own content and little else, with no eye towards engagement, and you won’t get much out of it.
If you publish a blog post and no one reads it, you’re better off not having spent the time to create the blog post at all (unless you are skilled at writing content that ranks well in search engines). Only through promotion and amplification can your posts reach targeted audiences and resonate. It means keeping your specific audience and your influencers in mind while writing. And it means focusing your efforts even more tightly while promoting the blog post.
Sound like a lot of work? Anything worthwhile should take plenty of effort. But ask yourself this: would you rather spend an hour on something that no one reads, or six hours on something that spreads across social media, growing your presence among people who will enjoy your brand?
